Insurgent- Zahlia's Story
by DivergentLover511
Summary: The sequel of Divergent, told from the perspective of a 16 year-old Erudite girl. (For another side of the story check out Divergent- Lorin's Story and Insurgent- Lorin's Story by HestiaAbnegation11, also check out some of his other stories!)
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I am amazed by how big the Amity compound is. As we walk, I see a cluster of greenhouses surrounding a huge building with another greenhouse at the center. As we get closer, Marcus leads us to Johanna's office, he must have been here before.

When we get to her office, she looks up and I see the scar that runs from her right eye to her mouth.

"Oh thank God," Johanna says, getting up and walking towards Marcus, "The others in your group got here more than an hour ago. We were starting to worry you would never come."

Her eyes search behind Marcus and land on Peter's bloody arm.

"Oh my," she says, "I'll call a doctor to treat that wound. You can stay here for tonight, but tomorrow I'll have to call a meeting so the Amity can vote on it."

We walk down the hallway to the guest dormitories, Lorin went to where ever he sleeps already. Beatrice and I are lead to the girls' dormitory, while Tobias, Marcus and Peter are lead to the boys' dormitories. I am so exhausted, it takes all my strength to walk to one of the beds and lay down. The moment my head touches the pillow, I fall asleep.

...

The meeting takes place in the greenhouse at the center of Amity. The Amity sit in small groups of two or three, but the Abnegation sit in tight rows in the back. I sit alone behind the Abnegation, being the only Erudite here. The room goes quiet, I turn and see Lorin standing next to Johanna at the front of the room.

"Thank you," says Johanna, "now, we have gathered today to discuss the attack on Abnegation by the Erudite. We have a good friendship with the Erudite, but we also have a good friendship with the Abnegation. We could help the Abnegation, or we could stay undecided, please discuss this."

Johanna steps back as the room becomes loud with chatter. Soon, people are getting up and joining other groups. What starts with many small groups becomes four big groups. Then, one member from each group come together with Johanna and Lorin. We wait for what feels like forever, then the other members go back to their groups and Johanna and Lorin step forward.

"We have decided to stay undecided," Johanna says.

My heart sinks, we will be forced to back into the city, back into the chaos and the running. I am so lost in my own thoughts, I almost don't hear what Johanna says next.

"But, we have also decided to make this compound a safe house to anyone who wishes to escape the city. If any of you wish to stay though, you must follow our rules. No violence of any kind, and you will all help out by doing a job everyday."

I am filled with relief, we are safe… for now at least.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

After a week of staying with the Amity, I am ready to leave, but I have nowhere else to go, so I will have to put up with it. I head to the dining hall with Lorin for breakfast and sit down at the nearest table. Lorin takes a piece of bread and starts to eat.

"Man, you people really love this bread," I say.

"Hey, it's good," Lorin replies.

"It tastes weird," I say, picking up a strawberry and biting it.

"More for me," Lorin says, shrugging and picking up another piece.

We are almost done with breakfast when Beatrice rushes through the door. She runs towards the Abnegation table, which is right next to ours and says,

"The Erudite are here."

"What do we do?" says an Abnegation woman.

"We need to blend in with the Amity, all of you with gray clothes on, go change and meet us back here," she replies.

I am already dressed like the Amity, all I need to do is hide my glasses, which I stuff in my back pocket. The meeting bell sounds and the Lorin and I head to the center greenhouse with the Abnegation following. As we walk through the hallways, we see Dauntless soldiers with blue armbands watching us, traitors. Lorin jabs me in the ribs as we walk past a soldier, making me laugh.

"Thank you," I say, after we had passed.

"Your welcome," he says, smiling.

When we get to the meeting hall, we sit on the floor near the front of the room. The Erudite walk among us, watching us. After a few moments of silence, I hear voices coming from the back of the room, then the familiar sound of fist on flesh. I turn around as gun shots ring out, heading in our direction. I duck and feel a rush of air near my head, the bullet missed me by inches.

Tobias has a gun to an Erudite woman's head, while Beatrice tells us to get up and run. We head to the door and once we're outside, we run after Lorin, who is leading us to the fields. It must be so it would be harder to follow us, sometimes I forget he also has an Aptitude for Erudite, even though it wasn't one of his biggest.

I hear the quiet sound of engines, almost inaudible over the sound of our ragged breaths.

"Split up!" I yell.

I grab Lorin's hand, then turn right sharply and run as fast as my legs can carry me. I run until I'm pretty sure the cars are far enough away, then turn right again, toward Amity.

"Where are we going?" Lorin asks me breathlessly.

"To the orchards, the Erudite and Dauntless traitors are probably still in the compound but most of them are chasing the others and they'd never look in the orchards," I answer, gasping for breath.

When I can see the tops of trees through the stalks of corn, I slow to a walk and Lorin follows suit.

"What are we going to do now?" Lorin asks.

"We could go to Erudite, spy on them." I say.

"Yeah," Lorin says, thinking, "it would be very useful to know what they are going to do next."

"I don't know if they trust me anymore, I left during the simulation attack. They could think I'm a traitor, even though I am," I say, "Plus they have records and would know you don't belong there."

"True," Lorin says thoughtfully, "We could go to Candor instead, Johanna told me the loyal Dauntless are staying there."

"That might be a better idea," I say.

We reach the orchard and watch the compound until we see the Erudite cars driving back to the city.

"Come on, it should be safe to leave now," Lorin says.

We walk for hours until we can finally see the city and sneak in through the open fence door.

"Ugh," I sigh, "I'm tired of walking, let's take the train instead."

"Fine," Lorin sighs.

We ride the train until we get to Candor Headquarters, or as everybody else calls it the Merciless Mart. When we walk through the front doors we are immediately surrounded.

"What's going on?" I ask.

"You are under arrest, that's what," says a Candor man, Jack Kang, Candor's leader. We are lead to a room with to chairs in the middle, and benches surrounding them from all directions.

"We are now going to interrogate you both while you are under truth serum," Jack Kang says, "Lorin Parks, you will be going first."

The Dauntless guards pull Lorin away from my side and lead him to the chairs in the middle. They inject him with a blue tinted liquid and sit him down in the chair while Jack sits in the one across from him. I watch as Lorin struggles against the truth serum, and am as surprised as the others when he flat out lies at one of the questions.

When Lorin is done he walks to the back of the room without looking at me. Now it's my turn, I walk to the center of the room and stand silently as Jack Kang injects me with the truth serum. My limbs become heavy as the fluid fills my body, I collapse into the chair and Jack sits across from me.

"What is your name?" Jack asks me.

"Zahlia Marie Gray," I say automatically.

"Who are your parents?"

"Kelsi Gray and Matthew Gray."

"What was your faction of origin?"

"Dauntless."

"What is your current faction?"

"Erudite."

"Are you still loyal to them?"

I falter in my answer, realizing where I am. I have stay aware, I can't let this serum get the best of me.

"No," I say finally.

"What were you doing in the Abnegation sector at the time of the attack?"

"I saw the Dauntless heading in their direction and went to investigate. When I saw that they were killing the Abnegation, I decided to help some get out of the area," I say easily, I have no reason to lie.

"Your story checks out," Jack says, looking disappointed, "One last question, Miss Gray, what is your deepest regret?"

I look at the ground,

_What do I regret? _I think, _Choosing Erudite? No, that's where I was meant to be. _

I think about Lorin's regret, shooting an Erudite girl. I think about the Dauntless soldiers coming after us, and say,

"I shot so many people, Dauntless soldiers, they were mindless and didn't know what they were doing and I shot them."

There is noise from the crowd, the Dauntless are giving me dirty looks.

"That will be all," Jack says.

"Thank you for your honesty," the crowd murmurs, making it echo around the room.

I stand up and leave the room without looking at anyone, making sure to avoid the Dauntless stares. Once outside, I walk blindly through hallways and down stairs until I find myself outside. I breathe in the fresh air and start walking, not knowing or caring where I am going.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I see Lorin walking toward me and stop to meet him.

"Hey, what's going on?" I ask when I see his face.

"We need to leave, I'm going crazy here," he says.

"I know," I sigh, "When?"

"As soon as possible," he says, and he walks away.

I sigh and turn away, the truth is, I'm going crazy too. The Candor stares, the Dauntless stares, it's bad enough being Erudite, but I admitted to killing their own. I walk toward Candor headquarters and here Jack Kang's voice coming over the intercom.

"I will be meeting with Jeanine Matthews tonight to see if I can negotiate with her. I will tell you the details of this meeting in the morning."

_Leave it to the Candor to be honest_, I think as I walk to my bunk on the main floor.

They are still cleaning up the damage from the attack by the Erudite yesterday, they came in and shot people with needles, then searched through the people, looking for Divergent. Luckily, Lorin and I were talking outside, and we were able to hide when we saw the Erudite coming. Now the people who were shot have circles of blue dye wherever they were shot, and people still don't know what it does.

I reach my bunk and grab the book the Candor woman who runs the library gave me. It's old and ripping at the seams, since it's from before the war and the faction systems, but I like it since it isn't about anything that's real. It's about children being forced to fight to the death in an arena, The Hunger Games it's called.

I head upstairs to the small library run by the Candor woman and meet Cara and Izzy poring over some inventions of ours.

"Hey," I say, walking over to the table.

"Hey Z!" Iz says in her cheerful voice.

"What are we working on this time?" I ask.

"The stunner, it worked fine before but now it just lights up," Cara says, frustrated.

"Hmm," I say, thinking.

We work until the dinner bell sounds, then head downstairs to eat. When we get to the dining hall, we see that the line goes all around the room.

"I'll see you guys later," I say, and start walking toward Lorin.

"Hey," I say when I reach him.

"Hey," he says, sounding tired.

"I was thinking that we would stay to hear what Jeanine's demands are, then leave," I say.

"Sounds good, but where are we going?" he asks.

"I overheard the Dauntless having a meeting, they're going to Dauntless, I think we should go too. We are part of them too," I say.

"Ok, anywhere but here," he says.

"Ya, this place is draining you of your Amity," I say smiling.

"Whatever," he says, smiling back at me.

"Go get me some food, would you? That lines' too long and I don't want to stand," I say.

"Get your own food," he says.

"That wasn't very Amity of you," I say in mock surprise.

"Ok fine, how about we both get in line?" he says.

"Fine," I say, faking a sigh.

…

I stand by the doors, sweeping up some leftover glass shards and the next thing I know the Dauntless are running past me, toward the doors. They're leaving, and it's time for us to leave too. I turn and run to Lorin, who is helping clean up some other debris from the attack.

"They're leaving now," I say, pulling him with me to the doors.

"Let's go then," he says.

I follow him out the doors and we sprint to catch up the the Dauntless, who are a several yards ahead of us. I look back at Candor Headquarters and see Cara and Iz standing by the doors, watching us leave. I turn back and run over to them.

"Where are you going?" Cara asks me.

"Dauntless," I say quickly, "listen, it's not safe here, Jack's made a deal with Jeanine. Go to Amity, they've set up a safe house for everybody there."

With that, I turn back to the Dauntless and run to catch up again, leaving Candor Headquarters and my friends behind.

They pass out paintball guns when we get to Dauntless and everybody starts to shoot the cameras I noticed when exploring the compound as a kid. I head to the Dauntless kitchen and shoot the camera in the corner, then, after looking around to make sure I'm alone, I walk over to the fridge and take a piece of Dauntless cake. I walk back out into the Pit and see Lorin standing against the wall.

"Hey," I say walking over, "why aren't you shooting stuff?"

"Because I don't like to shoot stuff," he says.

"Oh come on, shooting stuff is fun" I say.

"Is that cake?" he asks, pointing to the piece of cake in my hand.

"Maybe," I say, smiling, "well, I'm going to go shoot stuff, sure you don't want to come?"

"I'll think about it," he says, smiling back at me.

"Well hurry up," I say.

I turn away from him and start walking away, then turn back and shoot him in the chest.

"Hey!" he says as I run in the opposite direction.

I hear his footsteps following me as I run and shoot behind me. That's how it started, everybody joined up into teams, and we had a giant paintball war. After it all, my blue clothes are covered with multi-colored dots. I walk to my old home to get fresh clothes and find my mother in the living room.

"Hi mom," I say, standing in the doorway.

"Zahlia," she says, walking toward me and pulling my into her embrace.

"I'm sorry I left you," I say, fighting off tears.

She pulls back to look at me.

"Oh honey, I don't care about that," she says, "All that matters is you're here now."

"And I'll always be here," I say, letting the tears fall down my face.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I awake to the sound of banging on my door, groaning I get up and answer the door.

"Hello?" I say, yawning.

"Zahlia, something happened last night," it's Lorin, and he looks worried.

"What? What happened?" I say, awake now.

"Come on, I'll tell you on the way to the Pit," he says.

"Now? I'm still in my pajamas," I say, indicating to the black silk pajamas I'm wearing.

"Ok fine, get dressed, but hurry," he says, sighing.

I run back to my room and pull on some different clothes, then meet Lorin outside.

"Ok, now tell me what happened," I say as we walk toward the Pit.

"Well you know how about half the Dauntless were shot with those serums?" he says.

"Ya," I say slowly.

"Well apparently they forgot to get one of the security cameras in one of the dormitories and Jeanine and the Erudite programmed three of the people wired to jump of the building."

"What?!" I say, "So they're all dead?"

"No," he says, "only one of them is dead, the other two were caught before they could jump."

"Wait," I say, coming to a realization, "during initiation, Jeanine had us work on some serums, one of the things she had us work on was making the serums last for more than one program."

"And? Did you succeed?" he asks.

"Of course we did, we're Erudite," I say.

"But that means…"

"Half the Dauntless are wired for multiple simulations."

…

I make my way to the tattoo parlor on the edge of the Pit, which is run by Tori Wu, now a Dauntless leader. She looks up when I enter.

"Hey," she says, "you're the Erudite girl, right?"

"That's me," I say.

"You want a tattoo?" she says.

"That's why I'm here," I reply.

"Okay, what do you want?" she asks.

I hold up the book I'm holding, The Hunger Games and point to the symbol on the cover, a mockingjay, it's called.

"This," I say.

She takes the book from my hands and examines it closely.

"Okay then," she says, "follow me."

While she works on my tattoo, which I decided to get on my arm, I think about why I am getting it. In the book, the mockingjay symbolizes hope, hope in the games, hope in the rebellion, it also symbolizes the rebellion itself. I think it symbolizes hope too, but I also think it symbolizes strength, the strength to fight, the strength to resist authority, and the strength to keep going and keep fighting. That is what I need right now, the strength to keep fighting.

I leave the tattoo parlor with a bandage on my arm and decide to explore the compound like I did as a child. I walk down a random hallway, not paying attention to where I'm going. A few minutes later, I find myself in the initiates training room. I've been here before, but was kicked out before I was able to explore much. I notice a door at the back of the room and go to investigate, what I find is exactly what I'd expect to find in a training room closet, mats, guns, extra targets, etcetera. I take out a gun, load it with blanks, and stand in front of one of the targets. Might as well get some practice while I'm here.

I needed more practice than I thought, when I first shoot at the target, I miss it by inches. It takes me three more shots to hit the target, and five more to hit the center. I shoot until my gun runs out of blanks, then put the gun away and head over to the punching bags. I work on the punching bags, using the basic moves I learned as a kid. My hands are red from punching when I hear a voice behind me.

"Hey," it's Lorin.

I turn around.

"Ever heard of knocking?" I ask jokingly.

"Why would I knock on a training room door?" he answers.

"Whatever," I say, smiling.

"So what you doing?" he asks.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" I reply, "Training."

"So I see," he says, "Well it's dinner time and I thought I'd find you and tell you, I know how much you love your cake."

"You're so thoughtful," I say, laughing.

During dinner, the Dauntless leaders stand up and make an announcement.

"Now I'm sure everyone knows what happened last night," Tori says, "but we are not going to do anything about it yet. We have decided to increase security at all the exits and double check all security cameras to make sure everyone is safe for the time being. That will be all."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I wake up late by Dauntless standards, but really, it's only 9:30. Still, it means I missed breakfast. I get dressed and head down to the Dauntless kitchen, where Cassie, an old family friend, works.

"Hey Cassie," I say, walking into the kitchen.

"Hey Zahlia! Long time no see," she says.

"Ya, it's been a while," I say.

"So what brings you here?" she asks.

"I was wondering if you could sneak me some food?" I say.

"You know it," she says smiling.

"Thanks," I say as she hands me some Dauntless cake.

"No problem, come by any time, just not when my boss is here," she says winking at me.

I leave the kitchen with my cake and notice Tori standing by the chasm, looking worried.

"Hey," I say, walking over to her, "What's the matter?"

"Three of the Divergent have turned themselves into the Erudite," she says, sounding tired.

"What?" I say, incredulous.

"Yeah, Tris-"

"Who?"

"Beatrice, as you know her."

"Oh, okay. Go on."

"Tris, one of our leaders, Four, or Tobias, and some Amity."

"Amity?," I ask, fear striking into my heart, not Lorin, Lorin would never do that.

"Ya," she says, "he used to be Dauntless, I gave him a tattoo of the Amity symbol right before he left. Lorin is his name."

"Lorin," I whisper.

Lorin, my best friend, fellow Divergent, the only one I could confine my secret to, gone. Gone to die at the hands of the Erudite, my faction. No, my old faction. I can't let him die, but how do I save him? I'll need some help, and I know just who to ask.

…

I ride the train to the the fence and walk the couple miles to the Amity compound. When I get to there, I walk to girls' dormitory and step inside. A table stands in the middle of the room, with the beds shoved to the side to make room for it. Standing around the table is Cara, Iz, and Fernando, another one of my friends from initiation.

"Zahlia," Cara says, looking up, "What are you doing here? I thought you went to Dauntless."

"I did," I say, "listen, I need your help."

I explain about Lorin going to Erudite and how I have to save him. When I'm done we start to go to work, the plan is to go in on the day of his execution, which is in a week, give some paralyzing serum dyed purple to someone Cara knows on the inside. Then after the serum wears off, we run for it.

In the days before the mission, I distract myself by reading. I haunt the Amity library day and night, not able to sleep. On the day of the mission, I walk through the orchards, too restless to even read. Finally, it's time to go. I pull on my old blue dress and meet the Cara and Iz by the truck we are going to take to Erudite Headquarters.

The ride is short, we get to Erudite in 10 minutes and unload our stuff. Each of us take a gun, and a stunner in case we run out of bullets. Cara takes the serum, and puts it in her pocket. Once we have everything, we sneak around the main building and through the back door. Waiting for us is Peter, the Dauntless boy from the Dauntless compound. Cara walks up to him and gives him the serum.

"Make sure to switch Lorin's out too," she says.

"Why would I do that?" he asks.

"Because you owe me," she says staring him down.

"Ok fine, just wait here and I'll be back with him, I'm just dropping him off though," he says, walking away.

We wait for what feels like hours, but my watch tells me it's only been 5 minutes. Finally, Peter shows up pushing Lorin on a cart.

"You better hurry up and run," he says, "you're being followed."

There is no time to wait until Lorin becomes unparalyzed, I can hear the Dauntless guards catching up to us. We'll never make it out, unless someone distracts them. My mind is made up, I turn and run the opposite direction, shooting my gun in the air. I turn my head and see the guards chasing me, I twist my body and shoot one in the arm. I hear a gunshot from behind me and feel the bullet go into my chest. I scream, my vision blurred. As I fall, I see Lorin, lying on the table, his eyes on me, and everything goes dark.


End file.
